[Answered] New PS3 HDD help?

The ps3 system formats any new hard drive for that system, and will only put part of the firmware on the hard drive, assuming you have a nor console. Whatever firmware that your console is on, is what your hard drive will be as well. Nothing cfw after 3.55. Try minverchecker to see if you can downgrade.

Maybe just out of luck for a 4.20 cfw for now. There is always the option of a hardware flasher to downgrade your firmware to 3.55 (if your ps3 came with 3.55 or lower). Then from there you can get 3.55 cfw.

The ps3 system formats any new hard drive for that system, and will only put part of the firmware on the hard drive, assuming you have a nor console. Whatever firmware that your console is on, is what your hard drive will be as well. Nothing cfw after 3.55. Try minverchecker to see if you can downgrade.

To elaborate a little more - the PS3 still stores some data internally, on a flash chip. The only way to downgrade would be using hardware (depending on your HW revision), hooked inside the PS3 to bring it to a lower version.